By Prof. Dr. Satish Rohra
Narayan Shyam, the great Sindhi poet had once said,
"Ala ien na thie jo kitaban mein parjhe ta hui Sindh and Sindh varan ji boli"
(Oh Lord! Let it not happen that a day might come when we get to read only in books about the land of Sindh and Sindhi language)
Such concern about the Sindhi community and the Sindhi language is not the voice of the poet Narayan Shyam alone, but is lurking in everyone’s mind. All the intellectuals of the nation and citizens who are in one way or the other connected with the language, express their fear over this issue. This is not an imaginary situation but one that is realistic, especially in the wake of Sindhi schools being closed down and lesser and lesser number of students opting for Sindhi as a subject. Not only this, but the fact that the sale of Sindhi literature/books is rapidly declining and that most of the Sindhi families are using Hindi, English and other regional languages in the place of their mother tongue, is an issue of serious concern. Such is the state of the language today that the Sindhi community as a whole suffers from the fear of its uncertain future. After the partition, some Sindhis tried to hide their identity by changing their surnames and it is precisely because of this, that the fear about the language becoming extinct in the long run and the community and its language, was experienced by the people, at large.